Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures Leads Series B Round for Buoy Health, Joined by Humana, F-Prime and Optum Ventures

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Buoy Health is an all-in-one platform for your health, powered by an advanced artificial intelligence engine to provide personalized clinical support to individuals the moment they have a healthcare concern, today announced details of its Series B funding.

“When people get sick today, they have to turn into a medical student and an insurance expert,” explains Dr. Andrew Le, Buoy’s CEO.

“I went into medicine thinking that clinicians are the front-door of health care. They’re not. The internet is. And, when people are sick, they’re left to drown in the complexity of information on the web, leaving them feeling helpless, alone, and scared. At Buoy, we’re obsessed with fixing that paradigm. We want to empower people to get their care in a more personalized and convenient way. We’re here to give people a better front-door to care,” adds Le.

By acting as a digital triage, Buoy has been shown to de-escalate the intent for nearly 40% of E.R. visits at a time where E.R. overuse is on the rise across all patient populations.

Bill Hambrecht, led the company’s $15 million Series B round. Hambrecht, who famously founded Hambrecht and Quist, is also credited for popularizing the OpenIPO model and organized the first J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Apple, Google, Genentech, and Adobe are just a few of the companies, amongst others, Hambrecht has taken public.

“I’ve seen many young companies grow to reach their full potential… enough to know that Buoy has the vision, talent, and drive to fulfill theirs,” said Hambrecht.

The new funding will allow for the continuation of the company’s rapid growth in the US market, building on the 6.7 million annual interactions and 3.7 million completed self-triage interviews taking place on the site every year. The company also plans on expanding its enterprise offering by providing more in-depth navigation for new populations, including the “Baby Boomers” and those covered by Medicaid.

“Based on our proprietary MESE™ models, Buoy’s impact relative to the amount of money they’ve raised is astounding, and we’re very bullish on their future,” says Thomas Thurston, a partner at Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures, founder of Growth Science, and highlighted here for his ability to use data science to evaluate private businesses.

The funding round also brings a new strategic partnership and investment from Humana, one of the largest publicly traded managed-healthcare companies. The company also received additional funding from its existing investors F-Prime (Fidelity Investments venture capital firm) and Optum Ventures.

“We believe Buoy is poised to revolutionize the way patients engage in and access the health care system,” said Carl Byers, executive Partner at F-Prime Capital Partners, Fidelity Investments private venture capital firm.

About Buoy Health

Buoy is a health technology company developed out of the Harvard Innovation Labs by a team of doctors and data-scientists, aimed at providing personalized clinical support through technology to individuals the moment they have a healthcare concern. Buoy helps remove the fear and complexity that often confronts patients as they enter the system by navigating and engaging patients intelligently. The all-on-one technology is able to deliver triage at scale with transparency and in a way that can be adopted seamlessly within the healthcare system. For more information, please visit www.buoyhealth.com.

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Liz Kellogg

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508-259-1715